Halifax Explosion
1917 maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo collided in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Laden with high explosives, Mont-Blanc caught fire and detonated, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ).
Mont-Blanc was under orders from the French government to carry her cargo from New York City via Halifax to Bordeaux, France. At roughly 8:45 am, she collided at low speed, about one knot (1.2 mph; 1.9 km/h), with the unladen Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to pick up a cargo of relief supplies in New York. On Mont-Blanc, the impact damaged benzol barrels stored on deck, causing them to leak vapours, which were ignited by sparks from the collision, setting off a fire on board that quickly grew out of control. Around 20 minutes later at 9:04:35 am, Mont-Blanc exploded.
Nearly all structures within an 800-metre (2,600 ft) or half-mile radius, including the community of Richmond, were obliterated.
“Halifax Explosion” enters the record as 1917 maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Halifax, Explosion and maritime can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q502073. The Library of Congress control number is sh2004001928. Authority coordinates are 44.669, -63.596. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917.
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